Vice City

In a recent interview that was featured in last weeks’ Sunday Herald, Danny Boyle (whose new fantastic film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is at cinemas now) said that:

“…the vast majority of them [films] are all about cities.”

The following list is comprised of films and television series that show off the multi-layered society that exists within a metropolis. These are sprawling cities made of class structures and where different cultures clash. As with all large cities the criminal underside sits along side the police and judicial system with their ties to business and industrial wealth overshadowing a failing education and health system.

Los Angeles [as seen in ‘Falling Down’ (1993)] This ultra-black comedy sees redundant defence worker D-Fens (Michael Douglas, never better) go nuclear in the rigidly divided, multi-ethnic, sprawling Los Angeles. He takes out his repressed rage against Korean store owners, violent Latino gangs, rude drivers, snobby golf-course wrinklies and obstructive fast food workers and a homophobic neo-Nazi.

See also: Devil in a Blue Dress, LA Confidential, Heat, Repo Man, To Live and Die in LA, Chinatown, Point Blank, Assault on Precinct 13, Sunset Boulevard, Biggie & Tupac, Blade Runner

London [as seen in ‘Naked’ (1993)] The capital has never looked quite as slimy, decaying or broken as in Mike Leigh’s disturbing tale of male self-hatred and misogynist attitudes. Mucky Manc; Johnny (David Thewlis) wanders the near Victorian squalor of London’s nights awaiting the coming apocalypse.

See also: Night and the City, Nil by Mouth, Children of Men, Eastern Promises, Frenzy, Performance, The Long Good Friday, Dirty Pretty Things, Bullet Boy, Mona Lisa, 28 Days Later…

Springfield [as seen in ‘The Simpsons (1989-)] The sheer level of ineptitude on all levels of society here is breathtaking. From the corrupt mayoral system, woeful police force, uncaring religious leaders to the shambles of a school system and the lecherous media, everything in this city is crazy and self-deluded. All this is ruled over by the absolute power of evil industrialist Mr Burns. No wonder the city frequently turns riotous at the drop at a hat. Shame about the movie though.

Johannesburg [as seen in ‘Louis Theroux: Law & Disorder’ (2008)] This shocking one-off documentary was perhaps the scariest thing on television last year. Theroux follows some of the corrupt private security firms (whom seemingly exist outside of the law) that effectively police the estates and streets of ‘J-Burg’. At times the programme was almost dystopian in it’s depiction of the city strewn with ethnic and racial violence, gangsters and the vigilante mobs.

See also: The Leader, his Driver and the Driver’s Wife, Tsotsi

Osaka [as seen in High and Low (1963)] This is one of Kurosawa’s leaser known efforts but also one of his best. It’s a film of two halves; the first is set entirely in the luxurious mountain-top house of a wealthy industrialist (Toshiro Mifune) whose son has been kidnapped. The second excitingly follows the police investigation across the sprawling, sweating city. This film gets progressively darker and stranger as they delve the city’s immigrant Chinese community, the dope dens, hospitals, ports and seedy night clubs.

Baltimore [as seen in ‘The Wire' (2002-2007)]
The thing about the arguably “the greatest TV series ever” was that nobody watched it. What was initially a story about the drugs trade fought in the ghettos of West ‘B-More’ between the cops and the corner boys then expanded and was built upon with every subsequent series. The post-industrial city took centre stage and was depicted in near epic Dickensian scale. The series showed corruption and failings on every level from the port unions to city hall, inner city education system and the local press. Yet the show never lost sight of the personal stories at the heart of this modern tragedy. I can’t big up this show enough. Watch it!!!

See also: Most of John Waters films

Other great cities on film: Hong Kong [Police Story], Paris [Breathless], Belfast [Odd Man Out], Las Vegas [Fear and Loathing…], Mumbai [Slumdog Millionaire], Tokyo [Akira], Berlin [Berlin Alexanderplatz], Rome [Rome Open City], New York [Taxi Driver], Gotham City [The Dark Knight], Metropolis [Metropolis], Newcastle [Get Carter] San Francisco [Vertigo], Vienna [The Third Man] Rio de Janeiro [Bus 174] Bruges [In Bruges] Algiers [The Battle for Algiers]